Word broke yesterday that former President George W. Bush charged a $100,000 fee to speak at a 2012 benefit gala for the wounded veteran charity Helping a Hero (“Empowering Wounded Heroes, One at a Time”). Former First Lady Laura Bush pocketed $50K for speaking at the 2011 event. The organization also spent $20,000 to book a private jet to fly the president to Houston for the event.

Let’s consider this: a President who oversaw the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan requires payment to speak at a fundraiser for an organization that’s designed to serve men and women injured in those conflicts. +Continue Reading

Got Your 6, the campaign that unites nonprofit, Hollywood, and government partners to promote veteran leadership in civilian life, has announced its first round of 6 Certified projects, as part of an overall effort to recognize content that accurately and responsibly portrays veterans in popular media.

That American Sniper tops the list should be no surprise, since the film about legendary Navy SEAL Chris Kyle is the most successful military-themed movie of all time. You might be more surprised to find out they chose Amira & Sam, a remarkable romantic comedy written and directed by Army veteran Sean Mullin. You can read our interview with Sean and rent the film from iTunes or Amazon Video.

Check out a full list of honorees below and find how how Got Your 6 chose the winners. +Continue Reading

If you’re a veteran living in the Washington, DC area, the hit Netflix series House of Cards wants you. Filming on the fourth season starts this July and they’re looking for extras. The show wants to cast men and women who actually served.

There’s always a chance they’ll give someone a line which would get you into the actors union which could lead to a huge action movie career. Or you could at least be visible in a couple of shots, allowing you to show the episodes to your friends and family and talk about what it was like to work with Kevin Spacey. +Continue Reading

“Every clinician should be asking their Veteran patients about sexuality,” said Dr. Linda Mona, who’s spent the last nine years running an intimacy clinic at theLong Beach VA. “There are many Veterans struggling with this part of their life, which means there are so many families struggling with this issue.” +Continue Reading

Fresh out of Naval Academy pitchers to promote to the big leagues, MLB located 92-year-old World War II veteran Tony Gianunzio and had him throw out the first pitch at the May 31st interleague game at Wrigley Field between the Chicago Cubs and Kansas City Royals.

According to the Associated Press, Gianunzio was a teenage pitching prospect and being looked at by the Cubs when he joined the U.S. Coast Guard. He was a gunner’s mate in the service. The veteran threw from the mound’s downslope and only bounced a couple of times before reaching the catcher’s mitt. +Continue Reading

Army veteran Dave Bronson and his wife Cara are featured on the new CBS reality show The Briefcase, premiering on Wednesday May 28 at 8pm ET/PT. Dave was injured in Iraq when an IED destroyed his Humvee and now he uses a prosthetic leg. The couple lives in Manchester, NH and, when the program was filmed, were building a new home using VA grants and expecting their second child.

The show’s premise is pretty tough: families who are dealing with financial issues are given a briefcase containing $101,000 and they’re given 72 hours to decide what to do with the money. They can keep all of it for themselves or give some or all of the cash to another family in need. Everything gets filmed and America gets to watch. +Continue Reading

Kinessa Johnson served four years in the Army as a weapons instructor and mechanic and did one tour of duty in Afghanistan. When she got out and needed a job, she found an unexpected new mission, protecting animals in East Africa and fighting poachers with VETPAWS. +Continue Reading

The nonprofit organization Historical Outreach Foundation has launched an ambitious program to preserve and share the stories of our nation’s veterans. “The Veterans Legacies Project was born from a need to preserve the history of our WWII and Korean veterans before they are all gone,” said Jonathan Sanford, executive director of the project. +Continue Reading

Military​.com has partnered with TakePart​.com, Participant Media’s digital magazine and social action platform to present a powerful documentary, That Which I Love Destroys Me. The film offers a candid look at PTSD through the eyes of two Special Operations veterans –Tyler Grey and Jayson Floyd – and charts their journeys toward healing through their struggles to rebuild relationships with family and exploring their trauma up close.

You can watch the entire film here through the end of March. Jayson Floyd talked with us about his experiences making the film and how talking about his issues really has helped him manage and work thr0ugh his PTSD. +Continue Reading

First off, apologies to director Errol Morris for giving away the slowly-revealed point of his new short movie Subterranean Stadium, streaming now at ESPN’s Grantland website as part of their Errol Morris Week and his “It’s Not Crazy, It’s Sports” film series. On the surface, it’s a profile of a bunch of guys in upstate New York who are obsessed with playing electric football, the primitive tabletop predecessor to video games.

It’s really a movie about a Vietnam veteran who’s struggled with health issues related to Agent Orange exposure and how his connections with family and friends helped him cope. Electric football is just the pastime he used to make those connections. Go here to watch the movie, as ESPN still hasn’t fixed its embeddable video to work on our publishing platform (a/k/a the world’s most popular). +Continue Reading